VIETNAM TODAY

The Russian Government announced its approval of a draft agreement on the establishment of a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and Vietnam, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Devotees and tourists are slowly destroying hundreds of statues of the Buddha in Bai Dinh Pagoda, Ninh Binh Province, as the touch them for good fortune.

Ho Chi Minh City plans to reduce environmental pollution by reducing the rate of buried waste to under 40 percent by the end of the year.

Ha Thi Khiet, Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation, has praised the Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam (BSV) for its contributions to national development.

Greece will continue paying its debts as long as it is able to, the government said Monday, a day after its ruling leftist coalition narrowly rejected a call by party hardliners to miss its next International Monetary Fund loan payment.

Former US ambassador to Iraq and Syria Ryan Crocker talked to FRANCE 24’s Marc Perelman about the situation in Iraq and the rise of the militant Islamic State group.

Mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Prize winner whose longtime struggle with mental illness inspired the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, was killed in a car crash along with his wife in New Jersey, state police said.

The number of Chinese tourists to Nha Trang City in central Khanh Hoa province is increasing sharply and accounts for the largest among Asian visitors.

In the rush of modern urban life, going to the market every day to get fresh food has become more difficult for women, to whom the responsibility of shopping and cooking has traditionally been relegated.

A Hanoi joint inspection team has seized some 1,877 handbags with fake labels of famous brands from a manufacturer in Thao Noi village in suburban Phu Xuyen district.

The Hanoi People's Committee has agreed for work to resume at eight construction sites along the first skytrain railway in Hanoi after safety concerns were resolved following a thorough inspection of the sites.

The Asia-Pacific region, central to global economic and geopolitical development in the twenty-first century, is the focus of a five-day workshop that got underway on May 25 in Danang.

Dinh Cong Tuong began collecting pottery and ceramics more than 20 years ago and has amassed a record collection of some 100,000 pieces spanning the centuries.

The Vietnam trade deficit widened less than expected in the five months leading up to June and a rebound in imports hinted to some firming in domestic demand early in the second quarter of the year.

Egypt and Vietnam convened the 8th political consultation session in Cairo on May 24 to enhance comprehensive cooperation in all fields, especially politics, economics and culture.

Nguyen Du Memorial Site, a three hectare sanctuary for a wide range of bird species in Ha Tinh Province, is being invaded by heavily armed poachers operating openly.

Mass graves at suspected human trafficking detention camps have been found by Malaysian police in towns and villages bordering Thailand, the country’s home minister said, with media reports suggesting they could contain hundreds of bodies.

A Japanese company has planned to invest nearly US$80 million into three waste treatment projects in Ho Chi Minh City.

Returning to Vietnam nearly 4 decades after the war, Paul George Harding, a US was veteran, has opened free English classes in Hanoi as he wants to make amends as far as possible to the Vietnamese people.